Dwarves, orcs and mayhem in First Watch by Dale Lucas

Author: Dale Lucas
Series: The Fifth Ward, #1
Released: July 11th 2017
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 416 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Humans, orcs, mages, elves, and dwarves all jostle for success and survival in the cramped quarters of Yenara, while understaffed Watch Wardens struggle to keep its citizens in line.
Enter Rem: new to Yenara and hungover in the city dungeons with no money for bail. When offered a position with the Watch to compensate for his crimes, Rem jumps at the chance.
His new partner is less eager. Torval, a dwarf who's handy with a maul and known for hitting first and asking questions later, is highly unimpressed with the untrained and weaponless Rem.
But when Torval's former partner goes missing, the two must consort with the usual suspects -- drug dealing orcs, mind-controlling elves, uncooperative mages, and humans being typical humans -- to uncover the truth and catch a murderer loose in their fair city.

Take your favorite cop show (Lethal Weapon is a personal favorite), place it in a filthy city with a distinct medieval feel, add dwarves, elves and other assorted creatures and you’ll get a pretty clear idea of what to expect from Fifth Ward: First Watch. Everyone has their weak spot, and buddy cop movies are mine, which means I was endlessly entertained by this book.

Choose Your Own Adventure With Romeo and/or Juliet (review)

Author: Ryan North
Series: Standalone
Released: November 10th 2016
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 400 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

What if Romeo never met Juliet? What if Juliet got really buff instead of moping around the castle all day? What if they teamed up to take over Verona with robot suits?

In this New York Times bestselling version of Romeo and Juliet, you get to choose where the story goes. Packed with exciting choices, fun puzzles, secret surprises, terrible puns and more than a billion possible storylines, Romeo and/or Juliet offers a new experience every time you read it. And, as an added bonus, all the different endings feature beautiful and quirky illustrations by some of the best artists working today, including New York Times bestsellers Kate Beaton, Noelle Stevenson, Randall Munroe, and Jon Klassen.

Whatever your adventure, you're guaranteed to find lots of romance, epic fight scenes and plenty of questionable decision-making by highly emotional teens.

New York Times bestselling Romeo and/or Juliet is a choose your own adventure type of deal, a ridiculously entertaining take (or takes, since there are plenty of them) on a classic that’s pretty ridiculous in and of itself. A classic it may be, but the word timeless doesn’t apply to this particular work, and the older I get, the more annoyed I am by Romeo and Juliet both.

A Magnificent Follow Up: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Series: Broken Earth, #2

Released: August 16th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 448 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.

The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring – madman, world-crusher, savior – has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy.

It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last.

The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken.

From the critically acclaimed author of The Fifth Season comes a follow up novel that will thrill every old fan and attract many new ones into this fabulous world of seismic catastrophes and magic. N.K. Jemisin put her considerable experience to good use and created a sequel worthy of all the awards that now shine on the cover of its predecessor. The Obelisk Gate is a symphony, a literary achievement that will endure the test of time.

Seismic Events in The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Author: N.K. Jemisin

Series: Broken Earth, #1

Relesed: August 4th 2015

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 468 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.

A season of endings has begun. 

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. 

It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. 

It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. 

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. 

As a Hugo award winner and Nebula award nominee, among many other awards and accolades, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin leaves very little doubt about its own quality. But even without the official recognition, The Fifth Season enchants easily, making it clear from the prologue that Jemisin’s writing is something extraordinary. This novel shines in its every aspect and shows precisely what a fantasy novel should be. It carries in itself everything from shiny worldbuilding to superb characterization and cleverly inserted traces of metanarration and metafictionality.

Anti-Heroes and Feisty Damsels in Distress: Chasing Embers by J. Bennett

Author: James Bennett

Series: Ben Garston, #1

Released: September 6th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 464 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: Amazon

         The Book Depository

There's nothing special about Ben Garston. He's just a guy with an attitude in a beat-up leather jacket, drowning his sorrows in a downtown bar. Or so he'd have you believe.

What Ben Garston can't let you know is that he was once known as Red Ben. That the world of myth and legend isn't just a fantasy, as we've been led to believe. And he certainly can't let you know the secret of what's hiding just beneath his skin...

But not even Ben knows what kind of hell is about to break loose. A centuries-old rivalry has just resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.

Good urban fantasies with a male protagonist are so very hard to find. I can name no more than three series I truly enjoyed from start to finish, which is why books like Chasing Embers are not only fun, but also necessary and always welcome.

Chasing Embers is told in third person from more than one perspective, which is fairly unusual for urban fantasy. I sometimes wished for the first person narrative I’m more comfortable with, but I understood why Bennett made his choice and how it served his story. It would have been easier to form a connection with Ben had the story been told from his perspective alone, but the slight distance gave us insight into things we wouldn’t have otherwise seen.

Heroines We Adore: Review of Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers

Author: K.B. Wagers

Series: Indranan War, #1

Released: August 2nd 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 405 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

Meet Hail: Captain. Gunrunner. Fugitive.

Quick, sarcastic, and lethal, Hailimi Bristol doesn't suffer fools gladly. She has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire. That is, until two Trackers drag her back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir.

But trading her ship for a palace has more dangers than Hail could have anticipated. Caught in a web of plots and assassination attempts, Hail can't do the one thing she did twenty years ago: run away. She'll have to figure out who murdered her sisters if she wants to survive.

A gun smuggler inherits the throne in this Star Wars-style science fiction adventure from debut author K. B. Wagers. Full of action-packed space opera exploits and courtly conspiracy - not to mention an all-out galactic war - Behind the Throne will please fans of James S. A Corey, Becky Chambers and Lois McMaster Bujold, or anyone who wonders what would happen if a rogue like Han Solo were handed the keys to an empire . . .

Behind the Throne, K. B. Wagers’ sci-fi debut, fell into my hands after much praise from some of my most trusted peers. To describe my experience with it as love at first chapter would not be an exaggeration at all. Discovering books like it and pushing them at unsuspecting readers is why I took up blogging in the first place. It gives me great pleasure to share my delight over this title with all of you.

Review: The Last Days of Jack Sparks

Author: Jason Arnopp

Series: Standalone

Released: July 28th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 336 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

Jack Sparks died while writing this book. This is the account of his final days.

In 2014, Jack Sparks - the controversial pop culture journalist - died in mysterious circumstances. 

To his fans, Jack was a fearless rebel; to his detractors, he was a talentless hack. Either way, his death came as a shock to everyone.

It was no secret that Jack had been researching the occult for his new book. He'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed in rural Italy. 

Then there was that video: thirty-six seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet was posted from his own YouTube account.

Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed - until now. This book, compiled from the files found after his death, reveals the chilling details of Jack's final hours.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks is an original, genre-bending, terrifying new novel by Jason Arnopp, a book that defies descriptions and explanations. It follows a very unlikeable journalist and writer as he tries to prove that there’s no such thing as ghost, or any other supernatural entity. Jack sees it as his mission to debunk any claims of supernatural encounters and he’s often very rude as he goes about it.

Release Day Review: Bite

Author: K.S. Merbeth

Series: Standalone

Released: July 26th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 416 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: Amazon

Kid is trying to survive in a world gone mad. 

Hungry, thirsty and alone in a desert wasteland, she's picked up on the side of the road by Wolf, Dolly, Tank and Pretty Boy - outlaws with big reputations and even bigger guns.

But as they journey across the wild together, Kid learns that her newfound crew may not be the heroes she was hoping for. And in a world that's lost its humanity, everyone has a bit of monster within them...

Bite, K. S. Merbeth’s entertaining debut, shines like the bright star it is as we follow a ragtag group of misfits with no sense of self-preservation and an unholy love of violence. Fans of post-apocalyptic movies like Mad Max will find plenty to love in this bloody debut. If you are bothered by severed body parts, you should perhaps skip this one, but if you are one of those readers who like to see their characters swimming in blood, this is an excellent choice for you.

Review: Imprudence

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Custard Protocol, #2

Released: July 19th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 354 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

London is in chaos.

Rue and the crew of The Spotted Custard returned from India with revelations that shook the foundations of the scientific community. There is mass political upheaval, the vampires are tetchy, and something is seriously wrong with the local werewolf pack. To top it all off, Rue’s best friend Primrose keeps getting engaged to the most inappropriate military types.

Rue has got personal problems as well. Her vampire father is angry, her werewolf father is crazy, and her obstreperous mother is both. Worst of all, Rue’s beginning to suspect what they all really are… is frightened.

When the Custard is ordered to Egypt, transporting some highly unusual passengers, Rue’s problems go from personal to impossible. Can she get Percy to stop sulking? Will she find the true cause of Primrose’s lovesickness? And what is Quesnel hiding in the boiler room?

Unforgettable adventures, an excellent fashion sense and ridiculous endearments helped Carriger’s books become the huge success they are today. Although she never strays away from her well established world, she always finds some way to keep it fresh and endlessly entertaining. Imprudence is perhaps the richest, most enjoyable example of her work after her debut, a book strong enough to pull in new fans, as well as satisfy the old ones.

Review: The Waking Fire

Author: Anthony Ryan

Series: Draconis Memoria, #1

Released: July 7th 2016

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 592 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

The Waking Fire is set in a vibrant new world where the blood of drakes—creatures similar to dragons—is valued beyond reckoning, and can be distilled into elixirs that grant fearsome powers to those who are “blood-blessed.” The novel follows an unregistered blood-blessed as he searches for an elusive variety of drake so potent, its capture would mean unrivalled riches; the second in command of a blood-burning ironclad ship; and a young woman in a lifelong contract to a trading syndicate, whose espionage mission places her on the front lines of a newly declared war. As empires clash and arcane mysteries reveal themselves, these characters are tested again and again and soon discover that the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.

The Draconis Memoria is a remarkable new epic fantasy series with steampunk flavor, full of the phenomenal worldbuilding and non-stop action that have gained Anthony Ryan a global fan base. 

The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan is the type of fantasy that will satisfy even the most demanding reader. Ryan envisioned a very dark world, an odd combination of futuristic and steampunk elements with bits of swashbuckling adventure thrown into the mix that actually works extremely well. In some aspects, it seems to be ahead of our times, what with government and democracy being long forgotten, but paradoxically, things like the social structure call back times long past. There are illiterate servants, steampunk gadgets, and yet women seem completely emancipated and considered equal in every way.

Review: Garden of Dreams and Desires

Author: Kristen Painter

Series: Crescent City, #3

Released: April 5th 2015

Publisher: Orbit

Length: 368 pages

Source: Bought

Buy: Amazon

Tourists are disappearing at an alarming rate. While Augustine and his lieutenants attempt to find them, Harlow and the evil spirit possessing her remain Augustine's true focus. Freeing her from the spirit's grasp is all he can think about, especially with no real solution on the horizon.

Then he discovers the tourists are disappearing because the witches are stealing souls to cast a dangerous chaos spell. Before he can stop them, Harlow becomes their victim. Now he must race the clock to set her free and end the witches' machinations before the chaos spell strips every fae in New Orleans of their power and bring fae rule to an end.

It is so hard to say goodbye to favorites, worlds and characters we’ve grown to love and admire. Garden of Dreams and Desires is a worthy conclusion to a beloved trilogy, despite being far from perfect. Painter continues in her usual style, with multiple perspectives and several plotlines, but she pushes it a bit farther in this book, unintentionally alienating us from our two heroes.

Review: Hope and Red

Author: Jon Skovron
Series: Empire of Storms, #1
Released: June 30th 2016
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 416 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

In a fracturing empire spread across savage seas, two young people from different cultures find common purpose. A nameless girl is the lone survivor when her village is massacred by biomancers, mystical servants of the emperor. Named after her lost village, Bleak Hope is secretly trained by a master Vinchen warrior as an instrument of vengeance. A boy becomes an orphan on the squalid streets of New Laven and is adopted by one of the most notorious women of the criminal underworld, given the name Red, and trained as a thief and con artist. When a ganglord named Deadface Drem strikes a bargain with the biomancers to consolidate and rule all the slums of New Laven, the worlds of Hope and Red come crashing together, and their unlikely alliance takes them further than either could have dreamed possible. 

Try to imagine the most fabulous combination of the following movies: Gangs of New York, Kill Bill and Pirates of the Caribbean. Did your mind explode yet? If yes, well, join the club. If not, just give it another second or two. Hope and Red is, according to its author, the first book in his swashbuckling kung fu gangster pirate romance trilogy. Yes, you read that right and no, I didn’t mistype. At this point, I believe none of you need any further convincing, but bear with me for just a moment longer. After all, gushing is what I do best.

Review: Fire Touched

Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson, #9
Released: March 8th 2016
Publisher: Orbit UK
Length: 352 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Mercy Thompson is back, and she'll soon discover that when the fae stalk the human world, it's the children who suffer ...Tensions between the fae and humans are coming to a head. And when coyote shapeshifter Mercy and her Alpha werewolf mate, Adam, are called upon to stop a rampaging troll, they find themselves with something that could be used to make the fae back down and forestall out-and-out war: a human child stolen long ago by the fae. Defying the most powerful werewolf in the country, the humans and the fae, Mercy, Adam and their pack choose to protect the boy no matter what the cost. But who will protect them from a boy who is fire touched?

Mercy Thompson is one of the characters that defined urban fantasy, along with Harry Dresden, Kate Daniels and a few others. It’s a very exclusive company she’s in, but her position is well deserved. Even the most determined critics of the genre would be hard pressed to find a flaw within this series, and what’s more, Briggs just keeps polishing the details to make her books even better and more exciting.

Tracer Blog Tour: Q&A with Rob Boffard

Hello, hello, my favorite nocturnal readers! 

The heat wave has been getting the best of me for days now! If you don't hear from me, it's likely that my head overheated and exploded all over the place. And now that I've put that amazing picture into your heads, I can safely introduce my guest today. 

According to both Orbit Books and yours truly, Tracer is the most exciting thriller set in space you'll ever read, and it's only Rob Boffard's debut novel. He set the bar sky high with this one, my friends! I was so excited about this chat with Rob that it took me a week to come up with somewhat coherrent questions. I wanted to know everything there is to know about him and his amazing novel.

Clash of Iron Blog Tour Review

Author: Angus Watson
Series: Age of Iron, #2
Released: April 14th 2015
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 560 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Iron Age warriors Dug and Lowa captured Maidun castle and freed its slaves. But now they must defend it.

A Roman invasion is coming from Gaul, but rather than uniting to defend their home, the British tribes go to battle with each other -- and see Maidun as an easy target.

Meanwhile, Lowa's spies infiltrate Gaul, discovering the Romans have recruited British druids. And Maidunite Ragnall finds his loyalties torn when he meets Rome's charismatic general, Julius Caesar.

War is coming. Who will pay its price?

Clash of Iron, the breathlessly awaited sequel to Angus Watson’s Age of Iron is finally here. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this book ever since I finished Watson’s debut. When done right, historical fantasy is my favorite genre, and this author definitely knows what he’s doing. In Clash of Iron, he takes us one step further in exploring the British Iron Age, a period that gives him free reign and ample opportunities. Not much is known about that time, which gives Watson a lot of space to take the direction he chooses. We know, however, that Iron Age in Britain ended with Roman invasion, and that threat is at the forefront of our heroes’ minds in this book.

Review: Prudence

Author: Gail Carriger
Series: The Custard Protocol
Released: March 19th 2015
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 343 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

ON BEHALF OF QUEEN, COUNTRY . . . AND THE PERFECT POT OF TEA.

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar circumstances - names it the Spotted Crumpet and floats to India in pursuit of the perfect cup of tea.

But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis and an embarrassing lack of bloomers, what else is a young lady of good breeding to do but turn metanatural and find out everyone's secrets, even thousand-year-old fuzzy ones? 

Fans of Gail Carriger, do you remember that spark of delightful, outrageous humor that was there in Soulless, but seemed to have all but disappeared in later books? It was probably somewhere collecting interest because it’s back in full force in Prudence. This is Carriger’s best work since her debut, it’s fresh, full of adventure and has just enough romance to keep us glued to our reading chairs.

Review: Symbiont

Author: Mira Grant
Series: Parasitology, #2
Released: November 25th 2014
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 518 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

THE SECOND BOOK IN MIRA GRANT'S TERRIFYING PARASITOLOGY SERIES.

THE ENEMY IS INSIDE US.

The SymboGen designed tapeworms were created to relieve humanity of disease and sickness. But the implants in the majority of the world's population began attacking their hosts turning them into a ravenous horde.

Now those who do not appear to be afflicted are being gathered for quarantine as panic spreads, but Sal and her companions must discover how the tapeworms are taking over their hosts, what their eventual goal is, and how they can be stopped.

Usually when a duology becomes a trilogy or a trilogy becomes a more lengthy series overnight, I grumble and complain and become instantly resentful of both the author and the publisher. But when I discovered that this duology somehow grew to become a trilogy, I felt nothing but satisfaction and joy. More books from Mira Grant are always good news to me. In fact, if Parasitology suddenly became a 180 books long medical thriller/soap opera hybrid, I’d still be a happy camper. That’s how much I admire this author and trust in her ability to always, always deliver.

Mini Review: Descent

Author: Ken MacLeod
Series: Standalone
Released: November 18th 2014
Publisher: Orbit
Length: 403 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO FOR THE TRUTH? Ball lightning. Weather balloons. Secret military aircraft. Ryan knows all the justifications for UFO sightings. But when something falls out of the sky on the hills near his small Scottish town, he finds his cynicism can't identify or explain the phenomenon. And in a future where nothing is a secret, where everything is recorded on CCTV or reported online, why can he find no evidence of the UFO, nor anything to shed light on what occurred? Is it the political revolutionaries, is it the government or is it aliens themselves who are creating the cover-up? Or does the very idea of a cover-up hide the biggest secret of all?

Can you imagine a wonderful, light science-fiction novel set in Scotland, with delightful Scottish accents, spaceships (possibly) landing in the moor, and unruly Scottish boys with very wild imaginations? Well guess what, as lovely as it sounds, you don’t have to imagine it, Ken MacLeod already did it for us.

Blog Tour Review: Age of Iron

Author: Angus Watson
Series: Iron Age, #1
Released: September 2nd 2014
Publisher: Orbit
Lenght: 560 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Bloodthirsty druids and battle-hardened Iron Age warriors collide in the biggest epic fantasy debut release of 2014.

LEGENDS AREN'T BORN. THEY'RE FORGED.

Dug Sealskinner is a down-on-his-luck mercenary travelling south to join up with King Zadar's army. But he keeps rescuing the wrong people. 

First, Spring, a child he finds scavenging on the battlefield, and then Lowa, one of Zadar's most fearsome warriors, who's vowed revenge on the king for her sister's execution. 

Now Dug's on the wrong side of that thousands-strong army he hoped to join ­- and worse, Zadar has bloodthirsty druid magic on his side. All Dug has is his war hammer, one rescued child and one unpredictable, highly-trained warrior with a lust for revenge that's going to get them all killed . . .

It's a glorious day to die.

Not much is known about the British Iron Age – a terrible thing for historians, but a very promising fact for historical fantasy authors like Angus Watson. It gives them centuries of nothing more than vague information to build upon and in Age of Iron, the first book in a major new epic fantasy series, Watson does this (and more) quite impressively.

Review: House of the Rising Sun

Author: Kristen Painter
Series: Crescent City, #1
Published: May 13th 2014
Publisher: Orbit
Lenght: 403 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository 
         Amazon

Augustine lives the perfect life in the Haven city of New Orleans. He rarely works a real job, spends most of his nights with a different human woman, and resides in a spectacular Garden District mansion paid for by retired movie star Olivia Goodwin, who has come to think of him as an adopted son, providing him room and board and whatever else he needs.

But when Augustine returns home to find Olivia's been attacked by vampires, he knows his idyllic life has comes to an end. It's time for revenge—and to take up the mantle of the city's Guardian.

Those of us who are familiar with Kristen Painter House of Comarré series knew to expect great things from her new urban fantasy adventure. However, I don’t think any of us expected this level of improvement over her previous work. As good as House of Comarre was, the Crescent City series is urban fantasy at its best, a shining star that promises to be even brighter in future installments. The two series are even vaguely linked, but rest assured, once can be fully enjoyed and understood without the other.